scholarly journals Eating politically

Author(s):  
Jayne Malenfant

This paper aims to demonstrate how the organization Food Not Bombs fits into a history of counter cultural food movements, especially through focusing on multiple political aims and the building of community through mutual food production and consumption. Through speaking with members who fill multiple roles within the Ontario chapters of the movement, I explore how various issues around the commodification of food, meat consumption, and activism inform how these individuals conceptualize their ‘food activism.’

Author(s):  
Floor Haalboom

This article argues for more extensive attention by environmental historians to the role of agriculture and animals in twentieth-century industrialisation and globalisation. To contribute to this aim, this article focuses on the animal feed that enabled the rise of ‘factory farming’ and its ‘shadow places’, by analysing the history of fishmeal. The article links the story of feeding fish to pigs and chickens in one country in the global north (the Netherlands), to that of fishmeal producing countries in the global south (Peru, Chile and Angola in particular) from 1954 to 1975. Analysis of new source material about fishmeal consumption from this period shows that it saw a shift to fishmeal production in the global south rather than the global north, and a boom and bust in the global supply of fishmeal in general and its use in Dutch pigs and poultry farms in particular. Moreover, in different ways, the ocean, and production and consumption places of fishmeal functioned as shadow places of this commodity. The public health, ecological and social impacts of fishmeal – which were a consequence of its cheapness as a feed ingredient – were largely invisible on the other side of the world, until changes in the marine ecosystem of the Pacific Humboldt Current and the large fishmeal crisis of 1972–1973 suddenly changed this.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Yaxin Sang ◽  
Juan-Carlos Mejuto ◽  
Jianbo Xiao ◽  
Jesus Simal-Gandara

Agro-industries should adopt effective strategies to use agrochemicals such as glyphosate herbicides cautiously in order to protect public health. This entails careful testing and risk assessment of available choices, and also educating farmers and users with mitigation strategies in ecosystem protection and sustainable development. The key to success in this endeavour is using scientific research on biological pest control, organic farming and regulatory control, etc., for new developments in food production and safety, and for environmental protection. Education and research is of paramount importance for food and nutrition security in the shadow of climate change, and their consequences in food production and consumption safety and sustainability. This review, therefore, diagnoses on the use of glyphosate and the associated development of glyphosate-resistant weeds. It also deals with the risk assessment on human health of glyphosate formulations through environment and dietary exposures based on the impact of glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA—(aminomethyl)phosphonic acid—on water and food. All this to setup further conclusions and recommendations on the regulated use of glyphosate and how to mitigate the adverse effects.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Ghislain de Marsily

In 2000, the World population was 6.2 billion; it reached 7 billion in 2012 and should reach 9.5 billion (±0.4) in 2050 and 11 billion (±1.5) in 2100, according to UN projections. The trend after 2100 is still one of global demographic growth, but after 2060, Africa would be the only continent where the population would still increase. The amount of water consumed annually to produce the food necessary to meet the needs varies greatly between countries, from about 600 to 2,500 m<sup>3</sup>/year per capita, depending on their wealth, their food habits (particularly meat consumption), and the percentage of food waste they generate. In 2000, the total food production was on the order of 3,300 million tons (in cereal equivalents). In 2019, about 0.8 billion inhabitants of the planet still suffer from hunger and do not get the nutrition they need to be in good health or, in the case of children, to grow properly (both physically and intellectually). Assuming a World average water consumption for food of 1,300 m<sup>3</sup>/year per capita in 2000, 1,400 m<sup>3</sup>/year in 2050, and 1,500 m<sup>3</sup>/year in 2100, a volume of water of around 8,200 km<sup>3</sup>/year was needed in 2000, 13,000 km<sup>3</sup>/year will be needed in 2050, and 16,500 km<sup>3</sup>/year in 2100. Will that much water be available on earth? Can there be conflicts related to a food deficit? Some preliminary answers and scenarios for food production will be given from a hydrologist viewpoint.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. eabc8259
Author(s):  
Izabela Delabre ◽  
Lily O. Rodriguez ◽  
Joanna Miller Smallwood ◽  
Jörn P. W. Scharlemann ◽  
Joseph Alcamo ◽  
...  

Current food production and consumption trends are inconsistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature. Here, we examine how, and under what conditions, the post-2020 biodiversity framework can support transformative change in food systems. Our analysis of actions proposed in four science-policy fora reveals that subsidy reform, valuation, food waste reduction, sustainability standards, life cycle assessments, sustainable diets, mainstreaming biodiversity, and strengthening governance can support more sustainable food production and consumption. By considering barriers and opportunities of implementing these actions in Peru and the United Kingdom, we derive potential targets and indicators for the post-2020 biodiversity framework. For targets to support transformation, genuine political commitment, accountability and compliance, and wider enabling conditions and actions by diverse agents are needed to shift food systems onto a sustainable path.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Prodöhl

AbstractThis article traces the complex and shifting organization of soy's production and consumption from Northeast China to Europe and the United States. It focuses on a set of national and transnational actors with differing interests in the global and national spread of soybeans. The combination of these actors in certain spatiotemporal contexts enabled a fundamental change in soy from an Asian to an American cash crop. At the beginning of the twentieth century, soy rapidly became Northeast China's cash crop, owing to steadily increasing Western demand. However, the versatility of soy – and soy oil in particular – offered a highly successful response to the agricultural and industrial challenges that the United States faced during the Great Depression and the Second World War. By the end of the war, American farmers in the Midwest cultivated more soybeans than their Chinese counterparts.


Author(s):  
E. Kovalev

In 2007-2008 the world food crisis has substantially aggravated. This is a good reason to ponder over the fate of our technological civilization and a reminder of the finite nature of the resources used by the mankind. These resources include minerals, land suitable for cultivation, water and, at last, the technologies for securing the growing world population with the foods. The crisis has opened the eyes of many enthusiasts of the scientific and technological progress to some of its bitter fruits, in particular, to the polarization of food production and consumption, hunger and poverty of millions human beings, environmental pollution, progressive exhaustion of resources. Still, there are enough reasons to be optimistic. Earth's civilization has survived many turning points and has always found the way out and the methods to resolve the problem. It may be hoped that the humanity will also found the way out from the maze of problems that showed up as a result of the food crisis, at least in the foreseeable future.


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